Liverpool’s planning boss has come under fire from campaigners after saying the city should build on green spaces for future development.

Head of planning at the city council David Hughes said he was “just not convinced that brownfield first will work” for new developments.

He was speaking at the Royal Town Planning Institute’s housing conference in Manchester city centre where he said: “I’m just not convinced that brownfield first will work.

“We don’t have the green field and greenbelt issue in Liverpool, but we do have a large network of open spaces which are protected and cost a lot of money to maintain.

“It’s a tough decision for us, but we need to ask what proportion should be released for development? Studies have shown that people want quality and accessibility of open space, not just quantity. We need to balance brownfield development with looking at our surplus open space and other opportunities.”

But Jonathan Brown, chartered planner and council member of the Merseyside Civic Society, said: “It’s disturbing to hear Liverpool’s new head of planning propose dismantling the very policy which has done so much to help our cities recover over the last 20 years.

“Restricting building on green space is the stick to go alongside the carrot of regeneration investment, and has helped put an end to the hollowing out of Liverpool’s city centre and waterfront.

“Our population went up 6% in the last census – the first growth in 80 years. Good planning after the mistakes of the 1960s overspill and 1980s managed-decline has played a huge part in that turn-around, so it’s quite wrong to say it doesn’t work.

“If Mr Hughes means infilling the many demolition sites grassed over since the disastrous housing clearances, then that’s fine. But his message that much of Liverpool’s open space is fair game for housing will deter efforts to recycle derelict land, and sends the wrong message about the city’s valuable green infrastructure.”

Cllr Malcolm Kennedy, cabinet member for regeneration, said: "Let me be clear that there is no change of policy here. This was a conference exploring the challenges of how big growing cities like ours provide the homes we need with the physical resources we have.

"It’s a tough challenge to balance this out, and that's what David was articulating.

"The council remains fully committed to preserving and enhancing our green places, which is precisely why we set-up a review led by Simon O'Brien.

"The recession and the Government's poor record on house-building have created a great deal of uncertainty in the market, which leads to peaks and troughs in development. We need greater consistency from Ministers so we secure proper long-term planning for future housing growth."

There are also other campaigns across the city over proposals for areas including Sefton Meadows and Walton Hall.

Stephen McNally of the unbrella group Save Our Green Spaces said: “As an organisation of green space groups we are slightly puzzled that Mr Hughes is going against the mayor in this way. At the council meeting on April 8 the mayor stated the planning committee had accepted the building of 20k houses in Liverpool over the next five years and 98% would be on brownfield sites.

“People need green spaces to relax and escape the day to day toil. We hope he speaks to the mayor soon and retracts his statement, leaving our green Spaces alone.”